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You guys are saying pretty much the same thing. The builder should fly a majority of the time off in phase I testing learning his plane, but when it comes to actually stalling and checking flutter, that would be best left for a test pilot. When I (or any of the instructors) initially train someone, we spend a lot of time at the low end of the speed spectrum so you will know what it feels like when you are getting close (approach to stall). There is completely no benefit in this initial training to do full stalls. The benefit is knowing what the airplane is telling you right before it stalls. (and it is trying to tell you) I've flown with dozens of pilots in LNC4's, LEG2's and ES's who have been totally afraid of getting slow and just never do it. Well, that isn't the answer to safety. In each of these cases, I've had the pilots fly at speeds that they had never flown before until they are comfortable and realize they aren't going to suddenly flip inverted if they get below 90 kts. Sometimes this might take a couple of hours or more. These planes don't just fall out of the sky and don't just abruptly stall. Yes, there may not be much of a traditional buffet, but there are many many things, feelings, sounds, etc that the airplane is communicating with you that you are out of a normal flight envelope. The controls feel much much different than in normal flight. If someone does want to actually stall their airplane to see what it will do I have no problem with that and encourage it under the right conditions and with the right person. I'm not saying you "shouldn't" stall the plane, but once you find out what the stall is like, then it's kind of like a warm fuzzy feeling that you've done it, but again serves no real safety purpose.
I personally think stall strips should be installed (correctly) in order to give you a little better buffett warning and so the airplane stalls straight (both wings at the same time). I also think an AOA system is a requirement (and it's calibrated). If you recognize the "mushy" control feeling, the AOA is yelling at you, and know what to do to make them stop, then you are on your way to being a safer pilot.
If you remember a couple years ago, the folks at the FAA were prepared to basically require a type rating in a Lancair because there were so many people killing themselves. I was working at FAA HQ at the time and spent many many hours in meetings with those morons and finally convinced them that the airplanes aren't unsafe if flown in it's envelope, and if the pilots receive proper training. They issued letter InFO 10001 as a compromise.
Remember: A Piper J3 cub is one of the safest airplanes in the world and can just barely kill you.
RonG
----- Original Message -----
From: H & J Johnson
Sent: 06/22/11 10:35 AM
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: [LML] Re: Fw: [LML] Re: Stall Speeds, Wing Cuffs, Vortex Generators for L...
Jeff, We'll just have to agree to disagree on this point. :)
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